It's growing on me a little.
Just thought is was a funny pic. lol

Ya'll saw that coming!

Cha Ching...
That's the cash register ringing up the sales.

Now everyne has to lower their prices. lol

 

Competition is good. Hyundai and Kia haven't cut prices yet (as far as I know) but someone told me that they are giving upgrades they used to charge for in higher models for free. A friend of mine just bought a Y and is contemplating selling his Mach-E because the charging infrastructure for non Tesla's is getting overwhelmed (he travels a lot)

 

The Tesla price cut is a dagger in the hearts of the little competition they do have.
And when the Highland arrives, watch out world.

 

Have you seen this article? It speaks to just how well Tesla has done with their charging network.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/r...ric-test-cars/

 

Thanks, I'll check out the article later today. I can tell you from first hand experience that the biggest non Tesla charging network EA is struggling. On a heavily travelled holiday, I would seriously rethink taking my Polestar unless I travelled a few days before or at night. People I know who do the same trips in their Tesla's tell me it's a no brainer. Tesla has even thought ahead when it comes to heavily travelled holidays...if you leave a few days before holidays you get free charging. If you leave your car parked at charging station after it's finished charging blocking other people waiting you get charged pretty steep "idling fees". One of the reasons I'm going to get a Model 3 and give my wife my Polestar

 

The Electrify America network is a gigantic issue for anyone considering a non Tesla EV that would consider taking their car on a true road trip. A few weeks ago I caught up with a friend who has a Mach E - they recently drove from south FL to Pennsylvania (I truly have no idea why you'd take an EV on that trip, but whatever). The horror stories are real. He talked about going through an area of WV at around 2am - he had to go this route to use a charger and showed up only to find out it was a single slow charger (like using a regular plug at home) at a Harley Davidson dealership. Had his wife and 2 kids with him, all sleeping in the car. Took him 5 hours to get any type of meaningful charge, giving him just enough range to get to the next charger. Can you imagine needing to also use that charger and you have a family of 4 sleeping in their car for 5 hours during a slow charge? You could be in a Lucid, Rivian, BMW, Audi, etc - all having to use that.

If you buy an EV with the intention of never needing to rely on a charging network, it wouldn't matter. But this article hit on a lot of things he brought up - slow chargers, others not working, issues all around. No thanks. I don't find any model other than the Tesla S to be overly attractive cars and would prefer a Rivian, Audi E-Tron GT, etc. for styling but I refuse to be subjected to Electrify America. Tesla dominates with their charging network and the software that serves as the lifeline of the cars. I'll deal with not loving the styling in favor of those two things.

 

Yep, totally agree. The good news is that EA is slowly upgrading their charging network and adding new chargers...at least in California. Hopefully the influx of funds from the IRA will help speed up non Tesla charging infrastructure.

There is actually a couple of EA threads on the Polestar forum going on. One of them got so contentious that is got locked. A few people had the gall to point out that Tesla has a way better charging infrastructure...and sparks began to fly.....

 

As well as the opening of Superchargers for non Tesla vehicles.

EA charging network seems like a mess. I posted in here earlier this month with J. Liebermann of Motortrend providing real life example of his struggles with EA charging network with his personal Rivian. Just nutty stuff.

 

EA needs to fix the chargers they have before adding new ones.

 

The good news is that EA is replacing chargers with their new redesigned chargers, and adding new charging sites. The bad news is that they are taking down whole EA sites without notice. For example, there is a critical EA in Bakersfield, CA on the way to Southern California where they took the whole network offline to replace the chargers (now they are back up again with new chargers) without much notice. But again, they are adding new chargers which will hopefully start alleviating charging problems for non Tesla EV owners. The "greyed out" EA sites are both new sites they are adding and sites they are upgrading with new Fast chargers

 

I haven't had any issues yet with EA, I've never had an occasion where a location was out of commission. The other thing is that for one reason or another, mostly tied to the ongoing upgrades it appears, most of the times I've used EA the sessions have been complimentary.

 

An EA repair tech told me that when they are "complimentary", that means that there is an issue with the unit, but they are forcing it to stay online because other units are down. They will usually be throttled down to the 80 kWh speeds

 

Well that's the thing, they were all at usual speeds, so not throttled. My Lightning throttles if you DCFC past 80% SOC, but until then the complimentary EA sessions were pulling down 120 or so.

 

OK I see. Maybe they were having some other issues, like app access. There have been times when my app can't access the sites chargers, but the charger will start after I plug it in and the screen will say something about network issues

 

In other Tesla News.....


Tesla is still a relatively young carmaker, but it is already competing in the market against veteran and mainstream automakers. But even among the world’s biggest car manufacturers, Tesla appears to have a very particular strength — it’s not only great at retaining its customers; it’s also excellent at stealing and keeping buyers from other carmakers.

As per S&P Global, car buyers can be classified into three groups based on their loyalty: Super Loyalists, Loyalists, and Nomads. Super Loyalists have a history of repeatedly purchasing from the same car brand and are the most likely to continue doing so. Loyalists have made repeat purchases over their buying history, and Nomads have no recognizable loyalty to any brand and are more likely to switch.

American-based data from S&P Global has revealed that Tesla stands far ahead of other carmakers when it comes to retaining its customers. As per the firm’s data, over 80% of Tesla owners are Nomads that are new to the company. This is not surprising at all since the carmaker is a new player in the industry. It does, however, hint that a lot of car buyers are looking to electric cars as alternatives for their combustion-powered vehicles.


But what truly sets Tesla apart from the competition is its “One and Done” rate, which refers to the number of buyers owning a brand of vehicle and leaving it. In the 12 months ending July 2022, about 58% of Nomad car buyers in the United States left their vehicle brand, the highest “One and Done” rate in the last ten years. Tesla’s “One and Done” rate, however, stands at just 39%, which means that about 60% of the company’s customers will probably replace their existing electric car with another Tesla.

“While Tesla’s high share of first-time owners (83%) isn’t too surprising, their ability to keep those new customers is extraordinary. Tesla’s ‘One and Done’ rate is just 39% compared to 58% for the industry (remember, a lower number is better in this case). The next-best ‘One and Done’ rate goes to Ford at 50%. However, Nomad share of Ford’s return-to-market households in less than half of Tesla’s,” S&P Global wrote.

Erin Gomez, associate director of consulting for S&P Global Mobility, issued a statement on the firm’s findings. “Aside from the massive, long-term undertaking of creating products in new segments, there are other ways automakers can increase loyalty from their current Nomads. By understanding the loyalty makeup of their customer base, and where their Nomads are going, brands can take a more targeted and efficient marketing approach to retain them,” Gomez said.

The S&P’s analysis can be accessed here

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-best-brand-stealing-keeping-customers/